Pumpkin Patching
by FoureverDivergentInitiate
Summary: Or, How To Find Your Soulmate in a Field Of Orange. / collab with maybethea


**When you come back to fan fiction for a quick bit to share a collab you had been working on with Thea even though its like totally bad and out of season and everything, but you want to dedicate something to her memory because she left all of you.**

 **Yeah, you get everything down below.**

* * *

According to Evelyn Johnson-Eaton, the annual trip to the pumpkin patch just outside the city had been a family tradition in the Johnson family since she was a little girl. There was a certain charm to it when Tobias was a kid, sitting in the backseat, while his mother drove the almost two hour drive, listening to seasonal songs from a cassette tape his mother owned.

Back then, even the chill of the October breeze was welcoming, his breath fogging in the air, as they searched for the best pumpkin in the patch together. His mother used to call the best they found, the _pumpking._ It's not the same without her.

"Cheer up Tobias," Shauna says from the front seat, swatting away Zeke's hand from the radio dial. "You mom wouldn't want you to stop the tradition just because she isn't here anymore. Think of it as something you're doing for her."

He really is trying to think of it as something he's doing for her, but everything just seems too different. It was always just him and his mom, no one else, not even his father, but he didn't want to go alone, and couldn't help but ask his two best friends to tag along (or actually drive him there in this case). His mother's cassette got lost in the move from her house, to his new apartment, and the car that they're taking to the patch can't even play a cassette. Nothing seems like the tradition anymore.

"Tell you what," Shauna says, parking the car next to a battered Ford, which looks like it should have broken down in the 80s. "How about we bring some action into this thing? Make it our own tradition."

"And tell me Shauna, how do you bring action to picking pumpkins?" Zeke snorts, toying with his girlfriend.

Shauna's eyes glint in a wicked way, looking at Zeke with a diabolical grin. "Whoever finds Eve's _Pumpking_ this year, gets out of having to buy Christmas presents for the two losers, assuming that they have not yet bought presents for said two losers."

"So basically no presents for the two persons I spend the most money on every year? I'll do it," Zeke says cheerfully.

"Only if Tobias is okay with it," Shauna casts a thoughtful look to her friend, who is sitting in the back seat silently, staring straight ahead of him.

He blinks at her, still wary, but still nods, "Why not?"

* * *

If there is one thing about his friends Tobias always forgets at times like theses, it's that they're very competitive. He hates this little game they're playing, but masks his distaste knowing that they're just trying to lighten up his mood, and bring back cheer to his once favourite season of the year. But it seems to far fetched an idea to him, mainly because it was only a few days after Halloween last year that his mother passed away.

Nevertheless, he finds the _pumpking,_ two hours into their game, so perfectly shaped and such a bright orange, that it makes him feel that it outdoes all the _pumpkings_ of his childhood. It's only two rows over, and it's easy enough to get to before Zeke or Shauna can make it to his area of the patch, he thinks, already making his way to the _pumpking._

He's so focused on the pumpkin itself, that he doesn't register another person's presence until there is a pair of pale brushing his just as his fingers are closing around the gourd. Tobias blinks, more than a little startled, his head jerking upwards, meeting the eyes of the girl across from him.

The blonde girl who's got her hands around his _pumpking,_ is young, maybe his age or one year younger, and looks like she's even more startled than he is. She has sharp features, big eyes, a thin nose and light freckles dusting her face. And she speaks, "Of course I wasn't the only one who saw this pumpkin."

"Yup, and this is mine, but I think your's is a few rows back," he replies swiftly tightening his grip around the gourd.

"Really? I was being civil, and that's how you'd reply?" the blonde's fiestiness kicks up a notch, upon hearing his reply, and think that maybe, just maybe, he shouldn't have been so rude. "I'm pretty certain the only reason you got a hold of this pumpkin first, is because my arms are not as freakishly long as yours."

"Yeah, I don't think so. Let go."

"How about, no."

Tobias can win this little war by just a tug, but even he knows that it's an unfair fight if he does that against her.

Unfortunately for Tobias, the girl tugs before he does, and both of them fall, in a rather compromising position, with him hovering over her in a last minute attempt not to crush her small frame.

Tobias is competitive, maybe not as much as his friends, but he knows there are limits. Just he seems to quite underestimate this girl when she has him pinned under her by his hips, and the girl has complete control over the pumpkin.

"You win," he says, placing his hands by his head in surrender. "But I'd really appreciate it if you'd move from on top of me, because this is a kind of intimate position and there are kids around."

She scrambles off him quickly, and her pale cheeks are suddenly illuminates by a bright red as she looks down at her jeans and preoccupies herself by brushing off dirt from her pant legs.

"Tris," the girl says once they're both up.

Tobias' nose wrinkles. He doesn't even understand what she's saying. "What?"

"My name," she says her eyebrows raising with emphasis. "It's Tris. I kinda thought that after as much 'manners' as I showed just now, I'd at least owe you my name."

"Tris," Tobias tries, testing it out on his tongue. It's a weird name, but it suits her. "I'm Tobias."

Tris nods, bouncing faintly on the balls of her feet. "Tobias," she breathes, like she's testing the weight of the name too. She grins, bright and blinding, which he guesses means that she likes the sound of it. "I'd offer to shake your hand, but since we almost got to second base a minute ago, I'd say we've already had enough physical contact for the day."

* * *

Zeke and Shauna never fail to tease him about when they noticed him blatantly flirting with a girl in the middle of the pumpkin patch, instead of getting a winning pumpkin (And well, like he expected, if it wasn't him who won, it was going to be Shauna).

"Oh come on, it's not like if you'll ever meet blondie again," Zeke says, trying to justify his reason for teasing his best friend.

"Yeah, I know," Tobias hums in response.

He doesn't let Zeke or Shauna tamper with his mind though, because he has fate... and Tris' cell number.

* * *

 **So if you all didn't realize what my author's note above meant, it's basically me dying inside because someone very special to me (THEA!) has left writing about my favourite couple.**

 **The babe left me here alone, for wattpad, where she writes under the same username (maybethea)**

 **So yeah, I'm shamelessly promoting her here for Wattpad (oops?)**

 **-S**


End file.
